NYS Amateur Championship Qualifier Comes to Saratoga

Friday night’s 1st Annual NYS Amateur Championship qualifier at Saratoga’s Holiday Inn was a great success. Dave Wojcicki, Bob Miller’s right hand in these matters, told me that they had set up 700 chairs. I didn’t see too many empty ones. Enough said.

This was a solid show featuring 13 bouts, a show that was good for all the participating boxers who were looking to get to the Finals at Turning Stone Casino on February 12 and 13. Needless to say, it was good for local fans, too.

So sorry for the delay getting this info to you, folks, not to mention the skimpy details, but when you’re refereeing or judging ALL of the bouts, it isn’t always easy to watch with an eye toward remembering what to write! My apologies for the highlights I may have skipped over, but here were some for sure…

Albany’s Justin Lee is just looking better and better. The Quail Street boxing staff have much to be proud of in this 92-lb warrior. Justin showed lots of poise defeating a tough, tough (need to say it twice) Nacoda Merideth from Saratoga Youth Boxing. Merideth deserves lots of credit for hanging in there against the skilled Lee, whose balance and thoughtful strategy revealed lots of hard work under the watchful eye of Albany Coach Jerrick Jones.

While on the subject of Quail Street boxers, 81-lb David Smith is a young man to watch. In only his third bout a couple of weeks ago, Smith qualified to travel to the National Silver Gloves Tournament in Independence, MO on February 5-7. Smith had little difficulty with Schenectady’s Addulkalek Osman. Nothing against Osman who had every reason to leave the ring with his head held high – it’s just that Smith is real good – and this, just his fourth bout. Yikes.

Coaches from Schenectady Youth Boxing and Manny’s Old School Boxing were feeling just fine about their young boxers, Noah Hunter and Brandon Idrago, respectively. These young men displayed a level of skill and composure under fire that often escapes the crowd’s awareness, given their stature as 92-lb. boxers. We tend to wrongly overlook the little guys in anticipation of their older, bigger teammates

Idrago dropped the decision to Hunter, but it shouldn’t matter. Both boxers are on the road to becoming among the area’s best.

Referee Paul Brown says Evans is the winner over the skilled Compieu (Photo by Barbara Gesek)

Lou Amber’s Derrick Evans qualifies as having one of the sneakiest right hands around. Chad Compieu, the better skilled Canadian from Eastside Champs, had no answer for it as Evans would unleash that scarey thing and score with it over and over again. Evans has a effective way of taking a quick step to his left, creating an angle for the right hand. Other times, he would throw it overhand or just step straight in and out so fast that Compieu could do nothing but accept the leather. Evans rightly got the decision.

Saratoga’s James Garafolo thrilled the home town crowd with his defeat of Israel Lebron. Garafolo’s heavy scoring in the first round made Lebron not only fight defensively, but fight backing up – a very difficult and tricky thing to do, except for the highly skilled and experienced.

It’s worth noting that this was Lebron’s first bout. That alone would have made his showing a good one, but he displayed some skills that made all watching eager to see his next outing. The next bout found Israel’s brother, Ismael also taking his maiden voyage against Demorest Boxing Club’s Eric Calixto. Calixto took the decision, but “ditto” on this Lebron brother, who showed lots of courage and composure for someone stepping into the ring for the first time.

Josh Dulmer

Fans were disappointed to learn that the main event, a heavyweight contest between Quail Street Boxing’s Josh Dulmer and Troy’s Calving Jenkins was cancelled when Jenkins backed out at the last minute. It seems no one could tell for sure what the problem was. Some say he was ill, others say he just left. Either way, it enabled Dulmer to retain the James J. Morrissey’s Saratoga Heavyweight Champion for 2010 without suiting up. Dulmer was let down, though. “I didn’t want to win it this way,” he said. “I was ready for a fight and was real disappointed.”

One other word about last night… something happened that reminding me why amateur boxing is the safest of all contact sports. The National Safety Council discerned this ironic truth over ten years ago. Yet old stereotypes die hard.

One of our referees stopped a bout in the second round, sensing that the boxer was not all that excited about continuing. Knowing that these courageous young warriors will rarely say they’ve had enough, referees learn the signs and are not at all shy about stopping a bout to protect a boxer – even if it’s from himself or herself. And this is what happened in one of Friday night’s bouts.

After the bout, when the ringside physician performed the mandated neurological tests that are done on every boxer, nothing of concern was noticed. However, an hour or so later, the coach returned the young boxer to the ringside physician saying that he’d just started complaining of a headache and some nausea. The physician immediately restricted the boxer from going to the gym, let alone competing or sparring, for 30-days as a precautionary measure.

Amateur boxing is a tough sport, but no contact sport polices itself as rigidly. If a football or soccer player complained of a headache, he’d likely find himself back in the game. Not so in amateur boxing; the risks are simply too great. Better to sin on the side of caution – all of the time, every time. As a result, amateur boxing ranks in injuries behind football, basketball, wrestling, soccer, all of them – even in-line skating.

UPDATE: For those of you wondering how Harrison Cuello and B.J. Antoine made out in their So. Carolina fights, both bouts were cancelled. Cuello’s opponent, Shane Gierke pulled out (avoiding a first round knockout, if you ask me), and B.J. was unable to find an opponent. Both are looking forward to their Turning Stone fights in a few weeks!